


Time Can Bring You Down. Time Can Bend Your Knees. Time Can Break Your Heart. Have You Begging Please.

by I_have_a_Mycroft_of_my_very_own



Series: Suilad Aran Thranduil [27]
Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Hahaha whoops
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-10
Updated: 2015-01-10
Packaged: 2018-03-06 22:07:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 386
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3149999
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/I_have_a_Mycroft_of_my_very_own/pseuds/I_have_a_Mycroft_of_my_very_own
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"This thing all things devours:<br/>Birds, beasts, trees, flowers;<br/>Gnaws iron, bites steel;<br/>Grinds hard stones to meal;<br/>Slays king, ruins town,<br/>And beats high mountain down."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Time Can Bring You Down. Time Can Bend Your Knees. Time Can Break Your Heart. Have You Begging Please.

**Author's Note:**

> For those who are unaware, the expected time between conception and birth for elves is one year, which is why most elves are born a year to the day they were conceived, I guess this cuts down on the awkward backtracking people do to try and figure out what special event caused their parents to have them (I still can't work out what was so special in late April that lead to my conception...). Female elves also give away a piece of their soul to each of their children (which is why it is unusual for elves to have many children), they also know from the moment of conception that they are pregnant. 
> 
> Title is from Tears in Heaven by Eric Clapton. Summary is the Time riddle from Tolkien's Hobbit, chapter Riddles in the Dark.

The thing is, you have twelve whole months to prepare for birth, nine if you’re human. Twelve whole months to prepare for the birth of someone who will become your whole world. Twelve whole months to plan what you will call them. Twelve whole months to plan what their room will look like. Twelve whole months to get used to the idea of this new life that will become precious to you. You have twelve whole months to prepare for birth. Births are never a surprise. You don’t wake up one morning and suddenly find that your wife has given birth to a child you didn’t even know she was going to have. That’s not how births work. You have twelve months to prepare for births.

When you’re preparing for a birth it feels like you have all the time in the world left to spend. It never really seems like enough. You never really seem ready.

When you’re preparing for a death, you have days if you’re lucky, seconds if you aren’t.

The thing is, you have mere seconds to prepare for death. Mere seconds to prepare for the death of someone who is your whole world. You have days to go over all the things you will never say to them. Weeks to finally even take a single step into their room. Months to get used to the idea that this life that was precious to you is no longer life. You have years to get over this death. Deaths are always a surprise, even when you think you’re prepared for them. One moment you can be laughing with someone precious, and the next you’re standing over their body. That’s how deaths work. You have mere seconds to prepare for death.

He couldn’t have saved him, he knows that, but when he remembers him, he remembers his death. He remembers laughing at something he had said, and then he remembers the frantic scramble to get to the bottom of the tree where he lay broken. But it was not the fall that killed him, it was the arrow in his heart. He could not have saved him.

Twelve months to prepare for the birth of his son. Mere seconds to prepare for his death.

It’s never enough time. You’re never ready. Not for this.


End file.
